Mascara products are used to enhance the beauty of a person's eyes by coating the eyelashes to primarily thicken, lengthen, color, and define the individual eyelashes. For the last 60 years, mascara products have been provided in the form of mascara applicators having an applicator brush attached to a handle, the applicator brush portion dipped in a package, such as a tube, containing a liquid to semi-solid mascara composition. Mascara compositions typically take the form of emulsions or dispersions of waxes and pigments in water or other volatile carriers. Mascara composition and delivery systems are limited by emulsion or solution chemistry and film forming technologies that are applied wet and then dried to create a film of mascara that sets and holds the eyelashes.
These mascara compositions which are liquid to semi-solid have a low viscosity profile and low yield point, such that they are inherently prone to smearing and smudging after application to the eyelashes. The solid components dispersed in the composition, such as waxes, may also be difficult to apply, as clumping and globbing may occur due to lack of film smoothness of the solid components.
From another aspect, solvents and carriers of the composition that do not evaporate in timely manner may also provide smearing and smudging after application to the eyelashes. The so-called waterproof mascaras intend to solve such problem by employing volatile hydrocarbon solvents. While such volatile hydrocarbon solvents provide wear benefits, the application and beauty benefits may be compromised. Further, the volatile hydrocarbon solvents may cause odor and safety concerns.
One solution for providing a mascara composition having improved application and improved wearability, is to provide the composition solid, wherein the composition is heated prior to application to the eyelashes, for softening, and/or smoothing the composition upon application. Such heating would also benefit in shortening the evaporation time required after application. The solid film provided on the eyelashes after application would have a much higher yield point than films made by conventional mascara compositions, thereby being less prone to smearing and smudging.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for a mascara product which can apply a solid mascara composition to the eyelashes in a safe and effective manner. It would be further beneficial to provide the solid mascara composition in a predetermined dosage form, such that the user is easily provided with an adequate amount of composition to apply to the eyelashes.
Meanwhile, there have been proposed in the art eyelash curling devices, such as WO 99/22782 including a applicator brush and heater combination. However, the applicator brush is designed to curl the eyelashes by application of heat, while applying the mascara composition of liquid or semi-liquid condition fetched from a container. Due to the absence of the idea and structure for heating and fluidizing the solid mascara composition, the applicator brush is practically impossible to use in combination with the mascara composition proposed by the present invention. There is a need of providing a dedicated treatment device which takes the full benefit of the mascara composition to apply the fluidized composition successfully and uniformly to the eyelashes. There is a further need of providing such a treatment device which also comprises a loading means for providing a predetermined dosage form of mascara composition upon use.
None of the existing art provides all of the advantages and benefits of the present invention.